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FRSC parleys with truck drivers to reduce carnage on roads

By Paul Adunwoke
09 July 2015   |   12:19 am
THE Association of Maritime Truck owners (AMATO), Lagos, has urged governments at federal and state levels to seek solutions to the ever increasing vehicles on the roads so as to check the frequent accidents that occur almost on daily basis.
Chief Remi Ogungbemi

Chief Remi Ogungbemi

THE Association of Maritime Truck owners (AMATO), Lagos, has urged governments at federal and state levels to seek solutions to the ever increasing vehicles on the roads so as to check the frequent accidents that occur almost on daily basis.

This was the unanimous verdict by the members of AMATO at a parley between them and Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), in Lagos recently. The president of the association, Chief Remi Ogungbemi, said the roads, which were constructed many years ago are today not enough to take care of the large volume of traffic in the country, where also many of the roads are in deplorable conditions.

Ogungbemi said: “It is he who wears the shoes that knows where it pinches. Because we are always on the road, we know the problems we have on our roads and why there are frequent accidents.

“The major cause of accidents on our roads, to say the fact, is because the roads we have in the country are no longer enough for the large number of vehicles now plying them. “From what I know, the last time we had national development in Nigeria was during the regime of General Yakubu Gowon, and that is over 40 years ago.

The roads that were constructed 40 years ago to cater for the not so many vehicles that were available in the country that time, the same roads are still the ones that the large number of vehicles we now have in the country are still using. Why won’t there be accidents especially when you consider the bad conditions of the roads.”

The Zonal Commanding Officer, FRSC Zone 2, comprising Lagos and Ogun states, Assistant Corps Marshal Nseobong Akpabio, said whenever there is road accident and people lost their lives, FRSC always feels sad about it. According to him, the FRSC organised the parley to seek ways to reduce accident that is on the increase, especially among drivers who drive container-bearing trucks.

“We have concluded arrangements with AMATO on training truck drivers in Apapa to ensure that before they enter road with their vehicles they must have acquired basic knowledge about the minimum requirements they need for their truck and for themselves as drivers. They must not use tokunbo tyres on their vehicles; they must possess Driver’s license because many of them do not have knowledge about these things,” the Corps Marshal said.

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